Chapter 34 Transition

At night inside the office of Countess Curtana

Nicholas had just finished taking a bath after eating his dinner with Maria and Clarice. They ended their training pretty late this time, so Nicholas invited Clarice to have her dinner in the mansion. After they ate, Nicholas ordered the servant to escort Clarice to her home using a carriage since it was already quite late into the night.

Currently, Nicholas and her mother were sitting across from each other on a table with documents neatly arranged on the table. The documents were separated into 3 different stacks: one for the long-term trade agreements between the family and the merchants, one for the order requests of nobles and merchants, and one for the contracts on distribution rights.

Nicholas first read the long-term trade agreement contracts to confirm if everything is satisfactory, complete, and nothing is missing. Actually, this part is already done and signed by the Countess Iris, and Nicholas only read it for formality and to confirm the raw materials were completely ordered and nothing is missing for the continuous production of these beauty products.

Nicholas had to double check since they also ordered some misleading raw materials from different merchants to deter leaks and to be able to detect them from the source if there is any leakage of information about the materials needed for production. Only Nicholas knows the exact ingredient needed for creating the beauty products, so it's his responsibility to double check the trade agreements.

Beauty products such as make-up, lipsticks, and other powders already existed in this world; skin care products, however, do not. He noticed this in his childhood since he liked to snoop around the mansion, so he decided to develop his own line of skin care products as a business when he was old enough.

Hence, he read an alchemy book about ingredients and their effects; he narrowed down the effective one for skin care and treatment. So, when he had free time while he was just a kid, he was able to buy those ingredients using his own money from the system or his pocket money from his parents.

After a few years of trial and error on small animals, He was able to develop the base of skin care products: cleaner, moisturizer, retinoid, and vitamin C cream.

Cleanser to remove the dirt and oil buildup in the skin but dries out the skin due to the removal of oils.

Moisturizer to counteract the side effects of cleanser and soften the skin texture.

Retinoid and vitamin C cream to enhance your skin quality, balance the skin texture, and overall improve your skin quality.

Cleanser and moisturizer were quite easier to develop for Nicholas. For the cleanser, he just has to tweak, remove, and substitute the harsher and drying agents on the current soaps or scrubs on the market. For a gentler alternative from the ingredients that he read on the alchemy books in order for the skin to not dry out.

For moisturizers, he developed two different products for different skin conditions. An oil-based and water-based moisturizer from different combinations of oils, water, wax, and gels to help hydrate the skin after washing their faces with cleansers.

Lastly, the retinoid and vitamin C crème is an emulsion of the essence of citrusy fruits, pigmented root crops, and gels from plants in order to create this product. Its product was quite crude and needed to be removed after a certain period of time to avoid skin irritation.

Nicholas was very honest about his assessment of this product; it was mediocre at best if he compared it in his previous world. Even his base results from the cleanser and moisturizer that he initially made are just like what people do in home DIY projects.

However, in his current time, even one skin care product was like a stroke of genius since it didn't exist in this world. Nobles want to remain beautiful; they are easily captivated by products that enhance beauty, and Nicholas will definitely capitalize on the lack of market competitors.

…

Nicholas put down the document about trade agreements since he finished reading the list of materials traded, indicating it was complete and confirmed.

Next, he picked up the distribution rights of the skin care products. The Curtana's terms and conditions were that they also wanted to receive some benefit for letting them sell the products, and the merchants needed to renew the said contract annually.

The merchants who proposed for distribution rights offered different kinds of benefits like gifts, trade discounts in the future, weapons, raw materials, enchantment stones, and even fluctuated dungeon's resources.

However, most of them didn't agree with renewing the contract annually; some requested to revise it, and some from the noble merchant family even demanded to increase the term period.

Nicholas: "How shameless" Nicholas mumbled

He immediately discarded distribution rights to these kinds of greedy people; their nobility wasn't even higher than the curtana, and they had the guts to do that. He took note of such nobles and blacklisted them in the future.

Rejected. Rejected.

Rejected. Rejected.

Rejected. Rejected.

Rejected. Rejected.

Nicholas: "Some nobles truly don't know their place, huh."

He dumped a lot of documents about distribution rights, only kept deals that favor the curtana greatly or offers from higher nobility so their family can build connections.

In actuality, Nicholas didn't even need to outsource the process of selling the product, but he needed to reduce the risk of interference from higher nobility by sharing his future success with them.

With Nicholas's finalized choices on distribution rights, he gave it to his mother for her to choose from since she was more experienced in building connections than Nicholas, and he entrusted her dear mother to be successful.

And lastly, he picked up the order request from the nobles and some wealthy merchant families. The family alchemist had started producing the beauty products, and they are currently selling them in small batches to satisfy some of the demand. This only created a larger demand from people who cannot buy this product, boosting its reputation and selling price.

The beauty product that Nicholas had developed had started becoming a luxury item well known to be possessed by the wealthiest. Since this notion that the beauty products are a must-have, several nobles and merchants have personally inquired of purchasing or pre-ordering the next batch so they can procure it. 

The first thing he did was to separate the blacklisted individuals from the pre-order arrangements, especially the nobles, who demanded to fix the term period. Next was to put the higher-ranking nobles with current connections with the county on the approved list of pre-orders.

After that, he one by one checked each document order. He approved most of the surrounding lower nobility in the pre-order; even lower nobility with current connections to the curtana was approved.

Most merchants were rejected to pre-order; only the wealthy and higher-ranked ones were put on the approved list. Most wealthy commoners who heard the effects of the skin care product also were rejected; only people with connections and friendly ties with the curtana were given approval.

Everyone else was rejected.

Also, he put the higher nobility, which have neutral and bad relationships, in a separate group for her mother to check upon, since again he was not sure about this kind of noble relationship and how it would affect the county. After that, he bade her mother a good night, then proceeded to his own chamber to rest.

…

Morning arrived

Nicholas did his usual morning routine after he was woken up by Maria. Bathe, check his daily quest, eat breakfast, and asked the schedule for today.

Maria listed their task and schedule to Nicholas; she didn't forge to remind him that today will be the time they will be learning about advanced elemental manipulation.

Advance elemental training is available for awakeners who have unlocked two or more elements. This is the lesson where an awakener with two elements would learn to combine their element to learn and create an advanced element.

Hearing that, Nicholas face turned excited. He had been waiting for this for a very long time, ever since he was a kid; he wanted to learn at least one advanced element.

Nicholas: "Ohh nice. Is it really today? I was really excited for it in the past; I guess I forgot."

Maria: "Yes, the advanced elemental manipulation training will be conducted at the first floor, third room of the lecture hall."

Nicholas: "And who will be the lecturer? Is it Clarice's dad?"

Maria: "Yes. My senior knight Clairton would be facilitating the training."

And today was the day he was waiting for after he learned that advanced elements can only be learned after promoting to stage 2, so he urged Maria to prepare quickly since they will head out immediately. However, Maria doused cold water to Nicholas excitement since it was a scheduled lecture by the knight in service of the lecture hall. And it will start at noon, just right after lunch.

Nicholas was slightly disappointed; however, he chose to wait and do some other tasks first. He checked his daily tasks again on his system panel and decided to do it first to pass some time.